A man with eight doctorate degrees met a monk. He was proud of his achievement. The monk asked him: “Why have you been so foolish in life?” The man said, “But... you don’t understand! I have eight PhDs”. The monk said: “I have understood you; it is foolish to spend the best part of life reading instead of enjoying the birds, the stars and the moon”.

One may have all the knowledge but not clarity. One may know a lot and yet understand nothing. There is a difference between knowing and understanding.

Not knowing the difference between understanding and knowing leads to confusion. You have many centres: intellectual, emotional and physical. In each there is a mechanical and magnetic part. The mechanical part acts like a machine while the magnetic part acts with more awareness. You have to transform yourself. Your mechanical movements and thinking have to change. One’s mechanical likes and dislikes have to change, too. Mechanical emotions like jealousy and hatred have to be transformed. You can do this by bringing in more awareness.

There is no greater force than awareness. When one increases awareness, even poison can turn into medicine and with no awareness a medicine can become poison. A king dreamt that he was a beggar. In his dream his guru told him the truth that he was a king and not a beggar. Now was he to argue with his guru or just wake up?

Bring in more awareness and see the transformation of life. Even inert objects have life. With loving awareness treat any object and it will guide you mysteriously. Your intuition and purity have to increase to receive this message.

What are the differences between a pair of eyes and a camera? If capturing an image is the purpose of the eyes, then a camera will do. Eyes are meant to see beyond forms, like a sculptor sees an idol in a stone. So too, eyes are meant to see the divine. A relationship is meant to see the truth.

There are differences in a relationship. Give importance to your love and commitment, to your commonality, enjoy your relationship. Keep yourself relaxed. Increase your awareness and love. Let there be choice. ‘Should’ creates stress and limits you to only one option. Choose not to judge. It is not a demand but a wise choice.

The danger of judgment is that you stop seeing the object of judgment and you are more in your judgment. In life, you have to make judgments, but don’t be a victim of your judgments. Suppose, a thief enters your house, you have to judge him but then, be open to the possibility that he can change. Assume, you meet him after 10 years, see if he has changed or not. Do you still judge from the memory that he had been a thief? If you do not have this awareness, you will not see the change in a person even if he has changed.

Like you avoid poisonous food, avoid negative emotions. Like how you are very alert when you see a poisonous snake, be very aware and alert of negative emotions. Let them come, don’t identify with them. Don’t participate. They deplete your energy. They keep you asleep. They are harmful and heavy. They make your life complicated. We define our failure by somebody’s success. We feel jealous seeing someone successful.

If you go on comparing, life becomes miserable. If somebody is better than you, learn from them; enjoy others’ success. No one can have all good qualities. Someone will always be better than you at some level. Do not whip yourself with this comparison. Instead get inspired by someone’s success. Even if you compete with others, enjoy it. See the beauty all around.

Swami Sukhabodhananda

We are never alone. Neither in the womb, nor after birth. The true Self is boundary-less; it is all-pervasive. In terms of existence there isn’t any boundary, but at mind, body and speech levels we divide the existence into me, you and them.

I have a relationship with body, senses, mind, intellect; these are so close, yet so far from the real-self. Entwined with one another and still separate. We cannot draw a line as to where the body ends and where the mind begins or mind ends and the Self begins. The mind is a subtle form of matter and the body is the gross form of mind. Mind and matter are not different from one another. A quantum physicist would say that matter and energy are not two different entities. The source of matter is energy alone and matter keeps moving between matter and energy.

The mind is invisible but the body is visible. Hence our identification and association with the body is so deep that we tend to see ourselves as body alone. What is reality? Reality is that Self isn’t just the sum total of body, mind, feelings, thoughts and consciousness. The ‘i’ we are associated with, is the illusionary ‘i’. The ‘i’ we know has more to do with mind or body but our real ‘I’ remains obscure. What an irony that the i doesn’t know the ‘I’!

Knowing oneself is the first step towards making good rapport not only with one’s own mind and body but also with the other. This other can be husband, wife, mother, father, brother or anyone. Once we have understood how our mind functions, and as we witness the rise and fall of emotions in mind, we are better equipped not to get carried away with these waves of mind.

To start with you have to acknowledge your fallacies and begin to work with wisdom and meditation on them. There is so much of turmoil, confrontations in family and society because of the excess emotional baggage we carry. You have to learn to let go of it.

Life gives us situations, not solutions. Solutions are always created by our wisdom. In most of the relationships we see around, the basic problem remains the same. “I am a pauper; the other is a pauper”. When i say pauper then i mean a person who is devoid of the sense of true Self. But we wish to be rich by joining hands with other paupers. However, zero plus zero will remain zero.

You have to know this truth: Nothing; neither people nor things can make you rich, nobody can give meaning to your life. So stop hankering for appreciation, sympathy or love from others.
Explore your inner core, your untapped energy source and rejoice in it. Love and respect your Self and everything will become an echo of the same vibes. Thank this body, this breath and life. Give thanks for every little joy which life brings to you and smile. And smile like you have never smiled before and delve deep within.

Soak your Self in goodness of this moment and let every day begin with it and end with it. Soon you will love this new way of living. When you are strong, vibrant and energetic then you will begin to function as a magnet and you will attract all good people towards you. People enjoy the company of those who enjoy their own company. When you are rich with true “knowing” you become the real monarch.

Discourse: Anandmurti Gurumaa